Council: deer issue best solved by education

By DAVID MARTIN

Editor

A workshop regarding the deer in Green River underscores the difficulty the city faces in dealing with its resident deer herd.

Reed Clevenger, Green River’s city administrator, said the issue is something that would be impossible to address and please all of the city’s residents. Citing a survey of residents conducted by the city, Clevenger said residents have a nearly even split regarding if the city should find ways to curb their numbers or leave them alone. Leading to the meeting, Clevenger said he received two comments about the workshop from residents, one for doing something about the deer and the other opposed the idea.

Yearly head counts within city limits show the deer population to be around 100 animals, with the 2021 count deviating from that average with 61 deer. Clevenger said that count was hampered by severe weather. The 2017 count also recorded a lower number of deer, with 68 deer counted.

While there are options available to the city, the costs as sales tax revenue continues to return at its lower 2003-2004 levels mean the city would face questions of how it would pay for a deer management program.

Clevenger said city officials in Cody received a permit from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to cull 50 deer a year. He said Cody’s deer population is much higher than Green River’s, averaging around 250. The physical size of Cody is smaller than Green River’s as well, with Cody being 10.43 square miles to Green River’s 14.02 square miles. Clevenger said a deer population density similar to Cody’s would mean Green River would have 336 deer within its city limits.

Mayor Pete Rust said many residents are against the outright killing of deer, saying they’re more supportive of sterilization and other costly control methods.

While there have been collisions between deer and vehicles reported to the Green River Police Department, Clevenger said lighted deer signs donated to the city by the Muley Fanatics Foundation are helping reduce those collisions. The signs were placed on Uinta Drive and West Teton Boulevard, two areas that have a high number of vehicle collisions with deer.

Clevenger also said the police department has not received reports of deer attacking residents, though Councilman Gary Killpack said it did happen to his granddaughter five years ago.

“It really scared her,” Killpack said, saying he wasn’t sure what prompted the attack. Rust said it’s highly unusual for deer to attack people, a statement Killpack agrees with, believing the attack could have been an instance of his granddaughter being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Councilman Robert Berg said he raised five children across from Wyoming Park, a place deer are often found at. Because of how popular the park is with the deer, he said he had to educate his children about staying away from them, especially if they see a mother and her fawns.

“Don’t get between a momma and its baby,” he said.

With residents who face issues related to deer eating their gardens, Rust said working with the University of Wyoming’s Cooperative Extension Office’s master gardener program could help educate people about plants that wouldn’t be attractive food sources for deer. Rust said another option would be to provide residents with deer repulsion devices that scare deer if they approach a property.

“The best thing is, quite frankly, a motion detector that sprays water on the animals and scares them away,” Rust said.